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It is all everyone is asking me about today – “where were you when The World Trade Centre was attacked?”
New York City saw the most devastating terrorist attack ever to take place on US soil exactly nine years ago today. On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings.
Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon and a fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after the passengers and flight crew revolted.
I’d just arrived at a part-time job I was doing at the time. A call-centre place where I was responsible for irritating people with attempts to sell them a wall and roof coating service. It was almost 3:30 in the afternoon.
I was a little late as normal and tried to sneak in without the supervisor spotting me. I needn’t have bothered. The place was in near silence, with voices hushed and small groups of people huddled around a few computer monitors. No-one paid me a moments attention, and very little (if any) sales calls were being made.
Most of the team were crammed into the small meeting room where a television was tuned into CNN. I poked my head over the shoulders in front of one of the computers and saw the headline on the screen (I think it was the BBC) said something about “Planes crash in New York”.
I spent the rest of that shift with the others in the meeting room, glued to the CNN coverage. Needless to say, there weren’t any wall and roof coatings sold that day.
So let me ask you: Where were you when the world changed on 11 September 2001?
5 Comments
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Monique Theron, The BlaBla Blog. The BlaBla Blog said: New York City 9/11 – Where Were You… http://bit.ly/9O4pjg [...]
Nice to see you back Jo!
I was in a bagel shop near the U.S. Capitol. http://bit.ly/bUdxYh
Thanks for stopping by Mike!
Blablaians – go read Mike's memories of that day to see how an ordinary morning in America turned into a surreal experience.
Like you Jo, I was also at work. Someone's mother had called him to say that a "light plane had crashed into a building in New York City". I didn't pay much attention to it initially.
When the word went around a short while later that the 'light plane' was in fact a passenger jet, and that the 'building' was one of the Twin Towers things changed rapidly.
Voted! made a similar post on the 9/11 anniversary last year. Check where he was here: http://tinyurl.com/m6wae3
Thanks for the link dude!